Leaving Academia for Non-Academic Job

[Charlotte]

* What do you want to do all day?  As you have found out, not all academic jobs are the same with the same tasks.  Making a distinction between academic and non-academic jobs is often much less useful than figuring out what tasks you want to do, what tasks you want to avoid, and picking a job that has a good daily mix of what you want with little of what you don't want.

I've been thinking hard about this and while I've never thought that my research would be world-changing and earth shattering, my research could be very impactful at the community level. I keep thinking how nice it would be to work for an organization doing research and also including some practical applications such as starting community programs. I want to research in my area, and research what I'm interested in, but also have a role in applying it to specific situations/communities. I want to be able to go out into the community and see a program working that I helped research, develop, and get off the ground. I'd also love to do workshops teaching people how to start the programs and also within the community by providing public education in my area.

* What else do you need in your life?  Having a good mix of work and not work always is better than focusing on the job title.  Having others be impressed that you're a professor when what you want is more time to do something you love instead of something you think you might come to tolerate is a bad path to be on.

I've always been very goal driven and I thought I would thrive as a single career woman with the job being my life. In recent years, I ended up getting married and while I don't see myself having kids, I have changed my perspective a little. I'm seeing the value in everyday life events. I've always been very future focused, but lately I've come to appreciate being in the present moment. I want more of a work-life balance where I can work hard at my job but also go home and go on a hike, enjoy some hobbies. I don't want to spend the next 15 years fighting to publish, get a job at a research university, get tenure, etc. My priorities have shifted a little to where I'm more focused on family and community rather than achieving a rank in academia. I think my personality is such that I will always be fighting to move up, but I'm less motivated by the idea of achieving a specific job position.

* What is good enough for now and will build towards other things you want?  A good many of the teaching-only places have a history of poor pay, poor pay raises, and cutting benefits including retirement matching funds.  Is where you are such good money with such a bright future that you will stay the course in an OK-for-now job instead of exploring possibilities to have a better day-to-day mix of tasks with better prospects for current pay, raises, promotions, and benefits?

Where I am now has always been considered a stepping stone. The school has a history of mistreating faculty and I've seen first hand that they won't back me up on things and instead work to keep the students happy. It's a low paying job compared to other locations with not much support for teaching. My plan was to stay here five years and then ideally be able to move to another location. That plan is still (somewhat) in place only now I'm considering not applying to other academic jobs and focusing on building a resume for a non-academic job.


Thank you all for your thoughtful responses! I've been reading them carefully and giving them thought. I will respond to more later but for now must go to class!

[polly_mer]

You've mentioned community programs.  What are you doing now to create those relationships and partnering to be doing the relevant research?

As a goal, moving into community organization is very achievable in a few years if you purposefully work on relationships with the relevant people. Starting with outreach and helping write grants and/or do program assessment positions you well to take opportunities as they arise.

Can you work your CC service requirements towards interacting with external community groups so you get paid to establish relationships?

[Myword]

So far, no one mentions the importance of the subject you are teaching and  location, two crucial factors for making a decision. OP, what subject is it? Liberal arts or science, business, or what? The more practical or useful the subject, morelikely students will care, from my experience teaching a  hard subject regarded as irrelevant, useless. Is it required or an elective?
Lets say you are offering strawberry ice cream and no one likes it, it won't matter whether you give them less, change the time, or mix it up--they will not be interested --period.
   Do you like where you are working and living? The drive, conditions, scenery? Or is it boring and dull?
     

[Hibush]

I keep thinking how nice it would be to work for an organization doing research and also including some practical applications such as starting community programs. I want to research in my area, and research what I'm interested in, but also have a role in applying it to specific situations/communities. I want to be able to go out into the community and see a program working that I helped research, develop, and get off the ground. I'd also love to do workshops teaching people how to start the programs and also within the community by providing public education in my area.

This section describes what Cooperative Extension does. CE has programming in just about anything with social impact: nutrition, personal finance, child raising, gardening, environmental protection, bedbugs, community organizing, small-business operations. And farming, if you are in a place where that's an industry.

See what your county CE office has going on, or what your state's land-grant university has centrally (this Federal program runs through the LGUs). There is enormous variation among states and their land-grant universities, and among counties within a state. Even if your county is poorly served, the educators there are usually really well connected with organizations that provide complementary services.

At least in my state, extension educators often have PhDs and are better compensated than small-college faculty. Here is a listing that gives you a taste of the breath of position.

[polly_mer]

The more practical or useful the subject, morelikely students will care, from my experience teaching a  hard subject regarded as irrelevant, useless.

Nah.

The bigger question is whether the students want to learn. 

Easy, hard, practical, pure elective doesn't matter all that much.  I have been teaching literally kindergarten material to aspiring elementary teachers and gotten more push back than the impractical quantum mechanics that was several semesters removed from being useful physics.

People trying to check boxes to meet external requirements may have the designation of students, but they are much less pleasant than true students trying to learn.

[Myword]

Of course, whether students want to learn is crucial--and that's my point. And they want to learn material that they think helps them in some way. I agree. Helping them to think better is not a priority. This became obvious to me when I taught nurses and nursing students. The only reason to learn is for an A. Same with police students. If I were to tell them how to do their jobs better, they'd be eager. But I could not do that.

[Kron3007]

I'm surprised your discipline has not come up more as leaving academia looks very different depending on your field. 

For me, it would be an easy transition to run or be part of an industry research group and this happens quite often.  Likewise, people from industry often switch back to academia in my field, so it is by no means a one way road.  In contrast, this is not the case in other fields. 

I was offered an industry position a while ago, and while it would have paid more I decided to stay in academia for job security (I have small children etc.) and academic freedom.  However, if I were in a teaching focused position, I most likely would have jumped ship as I am also research oriented (I dont hate teaching, but would not want it to be my main focus) and would prefer an industry research position over an academic teaching position.   

   

[Kron3007]

I am thinking of leaving my teaching work after many years because of the intolerance for people who are not liberal democrats. Whether it will get worse or better in the near future I can only guess. I am still young enough, and financially secure enough,  that I could work full time at something that pays less. These issues may apply to your situation or not. Good luck to you.

Personally, I dont know the political leanings of my colleagues.  Most people I know leave politics at home.

Seems this is only an issue if you make it one.

[polly_mer]

This became obvious to me when I taught nurses and nursing students. The only reason to learn is for an A. Same with police students. If I were to tell them how to do their jobs better, they'd be eager. But I could not do that.

I was teaching exactly what students would need for the jobs they claimed they wanted and still got huge pushback.

One of the most frustrating things I experienced was trying to teach people what they would need to know for the jobs they claimed they wanted and yet, in spite of voluminous evidence, those students just wanted to check a box.  Nurses need chemistry.  k-8 teachers need science and math.  Doctors need intro physics and statistics.

My all-time favorite was the aspiring elementary teacher who claimed she didn't need to know the material because the answers would be in the teacher's manual.  This was literally k-3 material taught everywhere and she asserted she didn't know it and didn't have to know it.

Second favorite were the aspiring medical students who insisted that MCAT practice problems were not relevant.

One does not have to be teaching an esoteric "how to think" subject to have students in name only.

[larryc]

Charlotte, forgive me if I missed it but what is your field? That makes a big difference. My comments come from a humanities perspective.

First, and as others have said, make no rash decisions. This was a really weird year to start teaching. The physical classroom and online learning spaces are two different universes, and most of us prefer the former. You might find much more job satisfaction as things return to normal, and as you learn the ropes more efficiently.

Second--and this is where my humanities perspective shapes my advice--keep in mind that leaving academia is usually a one-way door. And it might be the right door for you. But be deliberate.

Good luck.

[apl68]

My all-time favorite was the aspiring elementary teacher who claimed she didn't need to know the material because the answers would be in the teacher's manual.  This was literally k-3 material taught everywhere and she asserted she didn't know it and didn't have to know it.

She sure didn't have much of an idea of what teachers do.  Or maybe she went to a really, really bad school and saw really, really bad role models.

[polly_mer]

My all-time favorite was the aspiring elementary teacher who claimed she didn't need to know the material because the answers would be in the teacher's manual.  This was literally k-3 material taught everywhere and she asserted she didn't know it and didn't have to know it.

She sure didn't have much of an idea of what teachers do.  Or maybe she went to a really, really bad school and saw really, really bad role models.

The argument that many aspiring teachers used was (1) they really, really like children and (2) they wanted to be kindergarten teachers.  The facts that the license they would get would be K-8 and most of the need in the regional schools was grades 5-8 didn't really register with them, even with increased repetition.

I taught weeder classes filled with crying because so few of the aspiring teachers really wanted to teach and teach all the core subjects.  Instead, those aspiring teachers wanted a middle class job with benefits as daytime mommy to little ones.  That's one reason that many education programs are putting college students as observers in k-12 classrooms in the aspiring teachers' first year.  Getting that reality check early on tends to be convincing enough that students make other, better choices for themselves.

Aspiring nurses and aspiring doctors are frequently similar in that they want to help people.  Those folks want to be solidly middle class doing something that matters and cannot be automated.  The notion that lives are literally at stake with knowledge of science and math having to be second nature is not part of the awareness of the job.  Again, changes to college programs are happening in many places to get students a better idea of what the job entails. 

I remember one student who had listed nursing as an expected major. During the spring scholarship interview before fall enrollment, this student said that the six months she had just spent as a CNA meant she was thinking psychology or maybe social work to help people, but not spend all day with sick folks.  She was worried that we (Super Dinky) wouldn't be pleased with the change and might revoke her admission.  I spent much of that interview reassuring her that we would much rather someone choose a different path early.  She got a good scholarship and was a very enthusiastic psychology major who did a couple internships.

[polly_mer]

Second--and this is where my humanities perspective shapes my advice--keep in mind that leaving academia is usually a one-way door. And it might be the right door for you. But be deliberate.

It's been a while since I've told the joke, but I'll tell it now.

A man held a job cleaning up after the animals in the circus.  After a few years, this man developed a rash severe enough that he had to go to the doctor.  The doctor did some tests and concluded, "You're allergic to elephant dung.  Have you considered going into another line of work?"

The man responded, "What?! And give up my life in show business?"


Being afraid to lose something one doesn't even have is logically inconsistent, but very common for PhD folks who have invested significant time and energy into obtaining PhDs that are mostly in demand in academia.  Going towards something good is always a better motivator than trying to avoid something bad, let alone actively clinging to something that is bad and won't get better.

The questions for readers remain:

* What do you want to do all day? 

* What do you want your life to look like in a few years? 

* What path are you on to get you to the life you want doing what you want all day while being financially comfortable enough?

Teaching can be very rewarding, but the teaching path doesn't lead to many other jobs in academia, let alone other jobs in the big, wonderful world of possibilities.

[Hibush]

Second--and this is where my humanities perspective shapes my advice--keep in mind that leaving academia is usually a one-way door. And it might be the right door for you. But be deliberate.

Good luck.

Where it is a one-way door, you should indeed only walk through it deliberately. If deliberation leads you that way, do so with confidence that what is on the other side is good, normal and rewarding. It is not failing, or rejection from the community, or any other number of concepts that prevent people in untenable academic positions (dung allergy...Ha!).

It has been a rough year for everyone, and the first year is usually pretty tough. So there is no way for us outsiders to tell whether things are likely to straighten out in your present position.

[polly_mer]

So there is no way for us outsiders to tell whether things are likely to straighten out in your present position.

Someone who mentions wanting their research to make a difference in community programs with adequate free time to pursue hobbies is probably not just a teacher at heart who is having a bad year at a CC.

It is very likely this is someone who may be an academic who enjoys mentoring students, but is not a great fit for community college.

I am here as the voice of doom to point out that teaching people who don't want to learn is a special skillset.

I love to teach.  I love to mentor.  The pay would have to be multiples of what I'm currently making as a professional scientist for me to accept a position where all day my job is teaching people who don't want to learn.

Although, apparently, I will spend several hours a week for free trying to teach people who don't want to learn and are actively singing lalallala while holding their hands over their ears.